(posted by AM, 8 November 2016)
"A question for the owners of older horns.
I have a 1977 S5T, stripped and glass beaded, I washed the parts and dried them, reassembled and tested....as the horn roared for a few seconds it loosened much of the crud/beads still inside the manifold, needless to say it stopped and I found damage to the nozzle faces.
So, after repeated soaks in turps and beatings with a dead blow hammer I'm still getting small chunks of crud, how do you effectively descale INSIDE a manifold?"
(comments)
MP: "I plug the bell ports/inlets, turn the manifold upside down, fill it with purple zep, (DO NOT PLUG THE BOTTOM OF THE MANIFOLD ONCE YOU PUT THE PZ IN THERE), let it sit for about an hour or so while it foams all over the place, then turn it upside down, drain it, then unplug all the ports, stick a hose on the bottom air inlet and let the water rinse the rest of the crap out of the manifold. After that I hook just the manifold up to my source of air, and let almost a whole tank just about run through it to blow dry it basically. After that let it sit and dry out the rest of the way, put it back together and you should be good to go."
SV: "Chemical vat hot bath non corrosive cleaner"
AA: "Block off all bell inlet ports, pour in Solvet B or X55. let it soak in for some time. Then i have an industrial 240V Kartcher pressure cleaner that fires up the diesel heater thats set on 100 deg C. Blast out all you want and what you can, tap manifold with nylon or stiff rubber hammer then blast again. When thats done pour in real hot dish washing detergent and water and blat it through again with the Kartcher. Flush Solvent B or X55 throuh it at the end then dry off with blower and if you can stick it in an oven with some heat to dry real good. Hook the air line close to your air tank with a ball valve and let it rip and just watch incase crap comes out."
NSJ: "Leslie 5-port brackets have an inherent flaw in their design. Those vertical stanchions below the horizontal air tunnel fill with crud that cannot be gotten out without drilling them open from the bottom of the bracket on each side. This is what I used to do, drill a 1/2" hole right in the seal-weld under the bracket, then fully clean out the air passages, tap the two holes and then plug them. Worked every time, and leaves you with a manifold whose vertical and horizontal passages can be easily cleaned out, as long as the side ports are plugged and not sealed."